Man I love seeing that written out. So here's the plan race fans. I Picked up this peach of a 1979 Wagon that has had a minor custom body modification, a-la mini ranchero. Now while it's cooler than all Heck seeing every car guy/girl and such try to contort their minds around what it actually is before asking me, I want to give it that extra punch, and make it go really fast. Or at least as fast as I can without much more major body modification. (I'm not the world's best at bodywork.) I had a 1979 Trunk model and harbored ideas to drop a turbo 2.3 into it, but when this thing came up, I just had to have it. Even traded the coupe off to get a 1985 turbo coupe thunderbird as a donor car. So I guess this will be my project journal, as it where. Here's a couple of pictures of the cars and the work I have ahead of me.

Thanks guys! It's looking to be a challenge, this is my first engine swap. My hopes are for around 200 horse on the road for the first time I take it out, And build from there. The only thing is, these cars are technically a unibody, and I'm missing half of my rear end. The panel under the rear window is plywood and fibreglass. At 200hp do you guys think it's a necessity to build a roll cage to strengthen the frame, or should I be okay for now? By the time I figure I'll be "done" with the car, I want about 400 out of it, but By then I'll have a cage.

A few other things that have me thinking are, I will need a pinto pickup/oil pan and engine mounts right? Also will I have to weld in the bases for the mounts? I've been searching, but unable to come up with an answer. A few guys have had to, but that's in early bodied cars whereas mine is a 79 with an 85 donor and I'm going from a v6, auto and I think an 8" to turbo 4, manual, 8".

A few other things that have me thinking are, I will need a pinto pickup/oil pan and engine mounts right? Also will I have to weld in the bases for the mounts? I've been searching, but unable to come up with an answer. A few guys have had to, but that's in early bodied cars whereas mine is a 79 with an 85 donor and I'm going from a v6, auto and I think an 8" to turbo 4, manual, 8".

yep, you will need a 2.3 pinto oil pan/pickup and engine mounts. not sure about the bases. I don't have any experience with the 6.75 rear, but they were made to deal with 80 or 90 HP. If it were me, I'd be looking for an 8", especially if you see some possible spirited driving in your future...

Thanks guys! It's looking to be a challenge, this is my first engine swap. My hopes are for around 200 horse on the road for the first time I take it out, And build from there.

200rwhp should be fairly trivial with stock parts, an intercooler, and 2.5-3.0" exhaust. The intercooled 2.3T cars frequently made their rated flywheel horsepower at the wheels. Ford has been pretty good about underrating their performance engines since then.

A large VAM+ECU and E6 manifold would make 200rwhp easier though. I don't think any 1985 ½ cars were titled as 1985s; just 1986.

Quote

At 200hp do you guys think it's a necessity to build a roll cage to strengthen the frame, or should I be okay for now? By the time I figure I'll be "done" with the car, I want about 400 out of it, but By then I'll have a cage.

Subframe connectors would probably help bridge the gap between a cage and nothing at all.

As an FYI, the 'Bird has a 61" wide (drum-to-drum) 7.25" (Correction: 7.5") Traction-Lock rear end most likely with 3.45 gears. I have heard of people using Turbo Coupe rear ends with Fox3 wheel offsets, but could never find anything on exactly how well it fit under Pinto wheel wells. The 10-hole wheels have 5.00" backspacing, so they would still stick out pretty far on each side....I would think.

As an FYI, the 'Bird has a 61" wide (drum-to-drum) 7.25" Traction-Lock rear end most likely with 3.45 gears. I have heard of people using Turbo Coupe rear ends with Fox3 wheel offsets, but could never find anything on exactly how well it fit under Pinto wheel wells. The 10-hole wheels have 5.00" backspacing, so they would still stick out pretty far on each side....I would think.

This interests me! does anyone remember someone using a Turbo coupe rear end in a pinto? i dont mind a little wheel spacing. this would work perfectly as i have an entire donor car, and that rear should take the power i want to generate, without grenading. Ive been looking around to see if i can find anyones swap in the archives and everything, but ive come up empty.

Below are a couple old photos from ebay showing a 73 Pinto with a 87TC rear and 16" Mustang rims. The tires do noticeably stick out a bit. The 87TC rear is different from your 85TC but the width may be the same (don't know). There are several threads here on narrowing Explorer 8.8" rears for Pinto use. Nice Pinchero conversion.

Yeah, even 5.5" BS wheels won't fix that spacing. Those are "Pony" wheels that came standard on 91-93 Mustang GTs and were optional on 5.0 LXs.

The '87-88 TurboCoupe rear is a Traction-Lok 8.8" with disc brakes and it is also 61" wide. It is/was a popular swap for Fox3 Mustangs, but makes the wheels stick out. Interestingly, only the axles make it wider. The "easy" way to narrow it was to install the shorter Mustang axles and either flip or modify (I forgot which) the caliper brackets. The '87-88 TC rear also came with either 3.55 gears or 3.73s.

I have read only speculation that the earlier 7.5" drum rear can be narrowed in a similar fashion.

This interests me! does anyone remember someone using a Turbo coupe rear end in a pinto? i dont mind a little wheel spacing. this would work perfectly as i have an entire donor car, and that rear should take the power i want to generate, without grenading. Ive been looking around to see if i can find anyones swap in the archives and everything, but ive come up empty.

Thanks so much for all of the help and info!

I corrected my previous post. The rear end in your '85 'Bird is 7.5", not 7.25.

Regardless, I wouldn't invest work involved with using the 7.5" (I know it's really tempting because it's right there) if your ultimate goal is 400hp, especially if any hard launches are planned. The 7.5 will live a lot longer under a lightweight Pinto that it would under a 3400lb 'Bird with the same power, but I don't know what the limits are.

Do it once, do it right, and do it with an 8" or larger rear end. Get the 8.8" T-Lok out of an '87-93 5.0 Mustang if you want a project. The gears will be 2.73-3.08, but it should also be the right 57" drum-to-drum width for a Pinto/early Mustang.

Yeah looks like I'm going to have to go with a 9". I don't like breaking stuff. As fun as it is. Haha easy enough to weld spring mounts and the whole 9 yards I have access, limmited, but access to a welder.

The project is coming along nicely, every little bit helps. Got the wiring harness in the thunderbird stripped, everything labelled. Looks like the engine harness and the body harness are mostly separate. A couple things I have to weed out, like the alternator wiring is in the body harness. Blegh.

I dragged home an 8" out of a Mustang II, so that was the "easy" way to upgrade in my case. Nines are tough, but they're really heavy and zoop up a bit more power.

The alternator wiring is in the driver's side portion of the T-Bird lighting harness, but I don't think you'll really need it. My TC alternator has the same connections on the back as the one out of my Pinto. They are both externally-regulated "1G" (first generation) Ford alternators.

I'm going to use a 130A "3G" alternator myself and it does need wiring alteration due to being internally regulated.

Nines are tough, but they're really heavy and zoop up a bit more power.

Huh....this forum's software is set up to replace bad-sounding words like $uck with "zoop."

Nines have a lot of pinion offset and the necessary spiral angle on the teeth causes a lot of sliding between the gear teeth, which causes it to soak up a bit more power than other designs. That is what also makes it stronger because it creates large contact areas between teeth and across multiple teeth at the same time. One thing is for sure though, a factory 28 or 31 spline T-lok 9" chunk is 1000x easier to find than any factory T-lok 8" carrier. If you can find a 57" nine rear, roll with it I guess.

Here's a couple pictures of the bed. And yes that is a goat in the first one.

I would love to go with an 8.8 and if I find one in the yards or private sales around here, but my chances are a lot higher that ill snipe a 9 in one of the scrap yards. Plus I've already done a rebuild on a 9 so I have -some- experience with them.

8.8 are plentiful, a dime a dozen. theres got to be hundreds of thousands of explorers in the yards... I think I paid $235.00 for mine, complete. it came with a 373 ratio, track lock diff, disc brakes, 5 lugs and large 31 spline axles. If that aint a deal I don't know what is... the 8.8's are pretty easy to work on, I took mine apart and reassembled it, wit no experience whatsoever... but, which ever way you go, you'll have a good setup.

I think ease of installation goes to the 8" and 9" rears. The lower entry fee on an Explorer 8.8 is offset by all the modification they need.

BUT...I'm finding that none of the sorry chain stores around here stock basic 8/9" repair parts like seals and axle bearings. I can get carrier and pinion bearings and crush sleeves all day long, but not the stuff that actually wears out in less than 40 years.

i used the late 80s mustang 8.8 cut the mounts off and welded on the perches and it fit perfectly under my 77, the hard part was getting the old rear end off. i would do it again. the problem with the explorer rear is you dont have the 4 lug, the disks are huge so you have to ballance the brakes, have to cut out the axle tube, hope you get that tube on perfect so you dont keep blowing wheel bearings. i find the mustang 8.8 is also the cheapest per performance ratio. unless you plan on making 500 or so, i think the late 80 mustang is the only way to go

Time for the big move! I got a random week off of work. And now my big plan is to have both the motor from the TC and the Pinchero Pulled. I want to do some quick tear down work on the turbo motor, and i need to rebuild the Transmission, but if i can have the motor and all other connected equipment out so that i can be rid of the shell. I already have the wiring harnesses seperated, and it should be a quick pull and run. Is there anything generally skipped over that i should be taking from the turbo coupe?

Get the mess of fuel pump wiring, fuses, inertia switch, and relays that go from the ECU into the trunk. Emphasis on mess; you'll probably have to pull the rear seat and get under the passenger-side carpet.

Also get the throttle cable and maybe pedal. I haven't reached that part of my swap, but I do know the stock 2.0 cable is too short.

got a bunch done on the weekend. Stripped the motor out. And split the tranny off. I'm going to put in a new clutch/flywheel. I'm in there, might as well. Just a couple things left in the donor car and it can roll down the road.

Far as I know the pipe is original. Still has the correct t3 turbo. Mine didn't even have the lifting eye. I had to sling the chain around the exhaust manifold. That was a tight fit and a sketchy lift.